When you are a founder or a co-founder at a startup, you ARE a leader.

You might be inexperienced and you might also be not so happy about it. But that is no excuse to not own your responsibilities towards the people in your team. It is no excuse to treat them poorly, to pressure them with your stress, to not be transparent, to act like a friend and like a baby in two consecutive interactions, to shout and lose your temper, to not provide vision and guidance, to be bossy and micro-managing, to pretend people’s growth and development will magically happen.

There’s plenty of help to be sought out there. Coaching, training, consulting, mentoring. Reach out to somebody and let them help you.

You might not feel like a leader today, but it is today you have to start becoming one.